CHRISTIAN 

YOUNGJLEIN 


85 OLIN 


ri'h'fiMiii 
ijjfyij;;,''.:.' 'I'ii 


■ ',■-. .I.'- ■ 1 H WtMilUlWlyWiMU.' 



17 



I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.* 






\ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 



RESOURCES AND DUTIES 

OF 

CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 

A DISCOURSE TO THE 

GRADUATING CLASS OF WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, 
AUGUST, 1845. 

BY STEPHEN OLIN, D. B, 

GEORGE PECK, EDITOR. 

PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT, 

FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 200 MULBERRY-STREET 
^^ JAMES COLLORD, PRINTER. ^ 



*<zc 






> c 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by 
G. Lane & C. B. Tippett, in the Clerk's Office of the District 
Court of the Southern District of New-York. 



4^4^ 






\ 



PREFACE. 



The following discourse is published at the re- 
quest of the class of young gentlemen for whose 
benefit it was delivered, and to them it is now affec- 
tionately inscribed. 

I have esteemed it a misfortune that my personal 
intercourse with the students of the university has 
been so frequently interrupted since my official rela- 
tion to them commenced, and that I have hitherto 
enjoyed fewer opportunities than I had confidently 
and reasonably expected for the inculcation, whether 
in the pulpit or the lecture room, of such Christian 
lessons as, from time to time, might seem adapted 
to their circumstances and wants. The improving 
condition of the affairs of the institution will, I trust, 
hereafter leave me at liberty to devote a larger por- 
tion of my efforts to the more appropriate duties of 
my station. In the mean time, I gladly avail myself 
of the present occasion to place in the hands of my 
young friends, as well those who are still under my 
watchcare as those who have gone forth into the 



busy world, my exhortation and advice in regard to 
several topics in which they are likely to feel a 
lively and increasing interest. 

I suppose educated young men to be peculiarly 
liable to the false reasonings and seductive influ- 
ences which it is the object of the following pages 
to counteract and expose : but I have miscalculated 
the evil tendencies of the times, if the admonitions 
of this discourse are not found applicable to a far 
larger class of our youth. To this most interesting 
portion of the Christian community these unpretend- 
ing suggestions are here presented, with my earnest 
prayers that God's blessing may attend and make 
them, in some degree, subservient to the promotion 
of an earnest and stable piety . 



RESOURCES AND DUTIES 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 



" Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not pro- 
vision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." 

Romans xiii, 14. 

This text is highly figurative, but its 
intention and import are very obvious. It 
is an exhortation to be evangelically and 
thoroughly religious. The first eleven 
chapters of the Epistle to the Romans are 
devoted to the exposition and inculcation 
of Christian doctrines. The twelfth and 
thirteenth are hortatory and preceptive. 
They announce our practical duties, and 
warn of dangers to be shunned. They 
declare, with authority and without any 
reserve at all, that we are held, under the 
gospel dispensation, to the highest style of 
virtue, both in the motive and in the per- 
formance. As far as concerns the principle 



O RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

of our movements in the new life, " love is 
the fulfilling of the law," while in point of 
fact and actual manifestation, believers are 
called upon to " present their bodies a 
Living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto 
God, which is their reasonable service," 
to " prove what is that good, and accept- 
able, and perfect will of God." Our text 
announces the true method of attaining 
these vital Christian objects in reference 
both to the motive and the manifestation : 
u Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill 
the lusts thereof." 

There is a numerous and very interest* 
ing class of persons entitled to our respect 
by their intelligence and moral worth, and 
appealing strongly to our sympathies by 
the false and highly critical position which 
they occupy. They are undoubting be- 
lievers in the Christian religion, and warm, 
avowed admirers of its sublime theology, 
pure ethics, and divine philanthropy. Yet 
they are not Christians. They are desti- 
tute not only of the hopes, but also of the 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 7 

helps, of the gospel. Something of its 
morals they contrive to exemplify. Some 
chill, half-extinguished rays from the Sun 
of righteousness are allowed to blend with 
their philosophy, and give coloring to their 
maxims of life ; but as a religious system, 
claiming the profoundest homage, and the 
most unreserved obedience — they only 
contemplate it from afar, and sedulously 
shun all personal contact and near com- 
munion with it. As a religious system, 
that is to say, as to all the ends for which 
God has made this great revelation to the 
world, the gospel is to these men but a nul- 
lity, and, for all practical results, all one as 
a lie. The moral attitude of these be- 
lievers, who yet refuse to be Christians, is 
painfully anomalous as well as grossly at 
variance with all right reason and the 
manifest fitness of things, just in propor- 
tion as their convictions are clear, and their 
faith satisfactory. Speculate upon it as a 
mere phenomenon apart from all evil con- 
sequences ; — what a spectacle of absurd 
folly and self-degradation is it for a rational 
being to live in habitual contempt of the 



RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

sure teachings of his own reason and expe- 
rience ; or for a moral being to live in per- 
petual conflict with his conscience ? What 
should we think of a man of mature age 
and unimpaired vision, who should delibe- 
rately walk into a flood, or into a confla- 
gration ? What should we think of a com- 
munity skilled in the laws and liabilities 
of our earthly being, which should con- 
temn all the promises of seed time and 
harvest, and blindly and bravely advance 
to meet the inevitable famine ? What but 
that chance or Heaven had smitten them 
with madness, the dire precursor of im- 
pending destruction ! Yet the infatuation 
we are now seeking to expose is greater 
and worse than this, in the same degree 
that eternal things are more important than 
temporal. What right has a man, I do not 
speak of him now as a creature of God, 
and responsible at his tribunal, but as a 
man accountable to himself, and bound to 
maintain some degree of self-respect as 
well as to make some provision for his 
own wellfare, present and prospective, — 
ivhat right has he to trifle with his own 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 9 

destiny, and to perpetrate such enormities 
as the shutting of his ears and his eyes 
against the words and the manifestations 
of the divine mercy toward him ? He is 
a being with strong passions, which need 
to be chastened and controlled — of power- 
ful tendencies downward as well as up- 
ward, which call for checks — of immortal 
aspirations, which struggle for their sphere 
and their proper satisfactions. These un- 
felt, undying wants, for which the gospel 
alone has made adequate provision, are so 
many voices rising up out of the bosom 
of our human nature, to rebuke and shame 
the believing impenitent out of his stupen- 
dous folly and more stupendous guilt. 

It is to be remembered that the gospel 
is a voluntary system, under which no one 
becomes virtuous or pious without seeking 
to become so. It is under this condition 
that it appeals to our moral susceptibili- 
ties ; and not to yield obedience to the call, 
is both to leave this part of our nature 
without development and training, and to 
inflict upon it positive violence. Religion 
too has its times and seasons. The dews 



10 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

of its grace are specially adapted to tender 
plants and fresh opening flowers, and are 
less congenial and less effectual when the 
growth is more advanced, and the root has 
struck deeper into the hard, arid soil of this 
world. Religion has its special lessons for 
youth, which cannot be learned, or if learn- 
ed, are no longer of much practical import- 
ance in maturer life. It seeks to lay its 
molding hand upon young, unsophisti- 
cated minds, that it may bring out fine 
specimens of redeemed humanity for God's 
glory and for heavenly bliss. It does not, 
and it cannot, change the leopard's spots. 
Repetition and reiteration have given to 
these simple statements the character and 
authority of proverbs, and, I am sorry to 
say, the infirmity of nite maxims ; yet are 
they the suggestions of the highest phi- 
losophy, and the most venerable expe- 
rience, and they are so many arguments in 
favor not only of becoming pious, but of 
doing so at the right time. 

Religion, to be genuine and effective, 
must be ostensible and avowed. Let no 
one hope to work out his salvation, or to 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 11 

secure any, even the smallest of the spi- 
ritual advantages which the gospel offers, 
by stealth. God, and our own moral na- 
ture, call for open, manly confession, and 
both will assuredly disown and denounce 
all pretensions to piety which shun ex- 
posure to the broad light of the day. No- 
thing can be effectually done in this work 
till the sincere aspirant after Christian 
excellence fairly assumes his position, and 
becomes, as he is intended to be, " a spec- 
tacle to men and to angels " — " a city set 
on a hill that cannot be hid." We not 
only have lessons to learn for our own 
improvement, but lessons to exemplify for 
the improvement of others and for the 
Saviour's honor. They only who run law- 
fully win the prize, and none others are 
likely to receive the precious aids indis- 
pensable to success. This we might expect 
from all we know of ourselves or of God's 
attributes, and of this we are notified in 
his word. Till a man assumes an avowed 
and recognized Christian position, he has 
no full scope for the exercise of his own 
proper resources, and no adequate occa- 



12 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

sions for calling up his powers. The state 
of indecision and divided aspirations which 
precedes the final and formal decision of 
this great question, is little better than a 
paralysis of the soul. There is seldom 
any distinct vision, and never any earnest, 
well-directed purpose or action, until this 
moral crisis is passed. But with the as- 
sumption of his true Christian position, at 
the moment of " putting on the Lord Jesas 
Christ;" not on religious, supernatural 
grounds alone, but on philosophical also, 
the man receives an investiture of high 
powers and immunities. It is an im- 
portant point gained to have it known to 
which party we belong. The sight of the 
banner that floats over our heads will not 
fail of clearing away many annoyances 
and many enemies, and of bringing to our 
aid troops of powerful auxiliaries. The 
courage of the soldier rises - with the putting 
on of his uniform, and still more at sight 
of the marshaled hosts that throng the out- 
spread field. 

The responsibilities of a Christian pro- 
fession, so often feared and shunned as 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 13 

intolerable burdens, under the pressure of 
which we are likely to make a disgraceful 
fall, ought rather to be invited as safe- 
guards and helps in the working out of 
our salvation. We are likely to walk cir- 
cumspectly as in the day, when conscious 
that the expectant eyes of friends as well 
as foes are upon us. The pious iEneas 
had a double motive for flying from the 
burning city when he bore his aged father 
upon his shoulders, and led his infant son 
by the hand. 

The pursuits, too, in which religion 
employs us, have a direct and powerful 
tendency to expand and invigorate the 
virtues to which they give exercise. We 
begin feebly and faintly™ it may be almost 
reluctantly. With infinite difficulty we 
drag ourselves away from the world, but 
more encouragements and fresh resources 
rise up in our path, and we speedily find 
that Christ has counter and stronger attrac- 
tions. His grace, ^ver the sole dependence 
of the humble Christian, operates at first 
but feebly ; beseeching, wooing, drawing 
us to be reconciled to God. It comes, 



14 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

however, to exert an influence more and 
more decided. It animates, it encourages, 
it impels, it constrains us. We are borne 
onward by it as on the bosom of a great 
deep. Its prevalence becomes at length a 
domination, and the willing captive, bound 
but unconscious of his chains, loses, in the 
deep feelings of the devotion of his heart, 
all sense of his moral agency, which gives 
way to a law of love — to a sort of pre- 
destination by the affections. Religion is 
no longer a drudgery, but a delight ; and 
he who could at first do nothing as it ought 
to be done, is enabled to do all things 
through Christ. 

At the same time that the resources 
of him who has fairly " put on the Lord 
Jesus Christ" are thus constantly and 
rapidly augmenting, the positive ob- 
stacles in the way of success gradually 
but surely diminish both in number and 
magnitude. In the first place, the evil 
passions and the devil can find little 
for one to do who is fully employed by 
the Saviour. Then bad habits, a great 
hinderance at first, grow weaker by disuse 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 15 

and neglect. Better tastes, too, are culti- 
vated ; , so that what were seductive plea- 
sures, and so powerful temptations once, 
lose their character and become an offense. 
Walking by faith, the Christian appreciates 
more and more completely the excellence 
of the heavenly objects with which he is 
thus made familiar, and so acquires a 
standard of comparison which he can but 
be ever applying to the worldly objects 
and enjoyments that invite his regards. 
Such a process cannot fail to wean him 
from perishable good, and so leave him 
more free from every weight. 

While this Christian process strengthens 
perpetually the motives and the aids to 
piety, and abates the force of opposition, 
it has a yet stronger tendency to improve 
the quality of our virtues. Nothing is 
more likely to retard and discourage a 
generous mind, intent on the attainment 
of the highest excellence, than a perpetual 
consciousness, or even suspicion, that its 
best performances are marred by the ad- 
mixture of some base alloy; that some 
low, selfish motive may have been active, 



16 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

though unperceived, in the production of 
its most shining deeds. We may acquire 
humility or modesty from worldly disap- 
pointments and mortifications, but some 
measure of misanthropy and discontent are 
likely to be derived from the same lessons. 
It is hot always easy to practice benefi- 
cence and charity, to exert the highest 
public, or social, or private virtues, without 
having, whether we will or not, some re- 
ference to the returns which we are likely 
to receive in the form of gratitude, or 
reputation, or public confidence, or pos- 
thumous fame. This selfishness, to what- 
ever extent it mingles with our motives, 
not only produces a sense of self-degrada- 
tion, but it is, in fact, degrading to our 
performances and character ; and so largely 
does this debasing alloy enter into our 
spirit and conduct, and so utterly impos- 
sible is it to exclude it altogether, without 
some more potent exorcism than mere 
human virtue can summon to its assistance, 
that most men, after some vain struggles 
against its occult, malignant influence, 
yield to its dominion, and become satisfied 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN* 17 

with doing their duty, without much con- 
cern about the motive. Under such cir- 
cumstances it is but too obvious that virtue 
has nothing left besides its form and its 
name. It has no longer any power to 
purify, etherealize, and exalt our nature. 
It is a mere earthly thing, a matter of 
business, a balancing of interests and con- 
veniences, a skillful and comprehensive 
solution of the question, How can we take 
the best care of ourselves ? I am quite 
sure that many will find, in their own 
consciousness and recollections, manifold 
illustrations of the evil I have exposed. 
Now he who has " put on the Lord Jesus 
Christ," has found a perfect antidote for 
this evil. He has become a disciple, that 
he may be saved ; and he devotes his entire 
life to Christ, who was crucified for him, 
as a matter of gratitude and pious obliga- 
tion. " Love is the perfecting of the law," 
and this is a motive from which self is 
wholly excluded. We work, we suffer, 
we live for another, even for Him who died 
for us, and rose again. When we have 
fully " put on Christ," then is love made 



18 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

perfect, and all fear and all selfishness is 
fully "cast out." Disenthralled from ail 
low, personal ends, and seeking only how 
we may please Christ, we enter upoTi a 
high, holy career of virtue, which can never 
know the taint of worldly maxims, which 
finds its model, its resources, and its ends, 
in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Gratitude, love, 
loyalty, these are the motives by which 
all heaven is swayed. They impel the 
angels onward in their career, and yet 
more the " spirits of just men made 
perfect." Indeed^ heavenly pursuits, and 
enjoyments, and virtues, are no other than 
those into which the good man is intro- 
duced when he "puts on Christ," — the 
remote and invisible parts of the orbit in 
which he has already begun to move. 

As the Christian motive is the only one 
which can be trusted for purity, so it is 
the only one that can be relied on for ef- 
ficiency, " Love is stronger than death." 
A man will often do for the love of his 
friend, or his family, what he could not 
do on any lower impulse. But if affection 
for kindred, according to the flesh, is able 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 19 

to minister strong impulses to the spirit, 
the love of Christ " constrains us." It 
imparts an energy something more than 
human, and qualifies for achievements only 
less than divine. A man's performances 
are likely to bear some proportion to the 
strength of the motives on which he acts. 
Now the great Christian motive, love to 
Christ, partakes of the superhuman and 
the godlike. It has the additional advan- 
tage of stability. It cannot be impaired 
by time, or change, or circumstance, but 
attains dominion over the soul, potent in 
exact proportion to our progress in piety. 
The racer moves more swiftly as he ap- 
proaches the goal. A body tending to the 
earth, gains speed in its descent. So the 
Christian is borne on with an ever accu- 
mulating momentum as he draws nearer 
to perfection in faith and love. "When we 
add that Christ has provided divine assist- 
ance for all exigencies to which our human 
resources are unequal ; that he gives the 
Holy Spirit to help our infirmities — to as- 
sure our hopes, illuminate our minds, and 
purify our hearts— I am unable to per- 



20 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

ceive what is yet wanting to a most 
admirable and all-sufficient apparatus of 
motives and means for the attainment of 
the highest moral excellence, and to the 
most glorious consummation of all that our 
fallen, but redeemed nature can aspire to. 

I have already intimated — indeed, the 
text directly affirms, and this is its burden — 
that these great facilities for the prosecu- 
tion of our moral improvement are sus- 
pended on the one condition of a sincere 
and hearty adoption of the gospel. We 
are " to put on the Lord Jesus Christ." 
He must become to us wisdom, and righte- 
ousness, and sanctification, and redemption 
— must be teacher, and priest, and only po- 
tentate. We must wear his livery, must 
go our warfare at his charges, and under 
his banner. Our dignity, our defense, and 
our exceeding great reward, must be sought 
and found in him. But we are not only 
called upon to make this entire dedication 
to Christ ; we are also cautioned against 
all reservations : " Make not provision for 
the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Faith 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 21 

in Christ, and a resort to the gospel for 
pardon, and purity, and eternal life, presup- 
pose an unconditional submission to its 
terms. Not one successful step can be 
taken in religion previously to the settle- 
ment of this grand preliminary. The mind 
may not be able at the outset to take in 
all the particulars involved in this great 
act of submission, but it can and does 
embrace them implicitly ; and it is of the 
very essence of all right faith to confide in 
Christ to the uttermost, and to consent to 
follow him whithersoever he goeth, giving 
to the winds all anxiety about the special 
paths in which we may be called to pro- 
ceed in our onward march to heaven. 
Christ's dignity and sovereignty are con- 
cerned in imposing such conditions as he 
pleases, and in receiving no terms at the 
hand of the sinner ; and he will unques- 
tionably use his disciples in just such 
services, and impose upon them just such 
burdens, as he sees best, giving no pledges 
in advance, but the assurance that his 
grace shall be sufficient for them. I know 
well that a multitude, even of professing 



22 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

Christians, begin and prosecute what is 
called a religious course, on a very different 
plan. They give law to religion. They 
retain as many indulgences, and concede 
as many sacrifices, as may fall in with 
their tastes. They make provision for 
pride, and ambition, and sensuality, and 
self-will, and " put on the Lord Jesus 
Christ" only in so far as they think he 
may set off their own purple and fine linen 
to the best advantage. But my business 
to-day is with the sincere, who wish to be 
made holy and to be saved by Christ, and 
who really desire to know the conditions 
of success. I take it upon me to warn all 
such to beware of admitting any worldly, 
or selfish motive, or consideration whatever, 
into the settlement of this great question 
between God and their souls. I take it 
upon me to proclaim that all such tamper- 
ing in the business of religion will certainly 
prove fatal to any well-founded hopes of 
success in the Christian career. Whoever 
stops to inquire whether it may cost him 
sacrifices to be a Christian, with any inten- 
tion to hesitate if it does, has admitted a 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 23 

consideration utterly incompatible with his 
becoming a Christian at all. Whoever 
chooses his creed or his church with any, 
the slightest, reference to the honor, or the 
ease, or the emolument, it may give or 
withhold, does, by such an admission, ut- 
terly vitiate all his claim to have any part 
or lot in the matter of saving piety. I do 
not speak of those who knowingly and 
deliberately make these their chief grounds 
of preference ; but I affirm that it is wholly 
antichristian, and an insult to the crucified 
Saviour, to yield any, the smallest, place 
to worldly motives in choosing the Chris- 
tian position which we will occupy. Let 
Christ and conscience decide in this matter. 
" Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make 
not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts 
thereof." The gospel will admit of no 
compromise here. This is its point of 
honor, which it cannot, and will not, yield 
by a single iota. I feel called upon to use 
the language of unmeasured denunciation 
against a mistake, so often fatal to hopeful 
beginnings in religion ; so very often fatal 
to the religious prospects of young men, 



24 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

I deem this point of sufficient importance 
to receive more particular and detailed 
illustration. 



Without stopping here to consider the 
grosser forms which this grave offense 
against the Saviour's dignity familiarly 
assumes, I will only refer to such as are 
most likely to be found in cultivated, as- 
piring minds. A demand is often put 
forth in this quarter for more tasteful de- 
velopments of Christianity than we are 
wont to meet with in its every-day history. 
Accustomed to look for the beautiful and 
the poetical in their speculations as well 
as in external objects, persons of this class 
can conceive of nothing higher or nobler 
in the gospel than its adaptations to min- 
ister to this universal want of cultivated, 
polished society ; and they have little true 
respect, and less sympathy, for any mani- 
festation of piety which does not conform 
to their special tastes. They have a theory 
on the subject, which requires that the 
divine Author of all the beauty and har- 
mony of the material world, as well as the 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 25 

world of intellect, should, for still higher 
reasons, observe the same great principles 
in his plans and operations for bringing 
men to heaven. I have stated the sub- 
stance of the theory, which is, however, 
variously modified by habit, education, 
and temperament. And I remark that this 
demand upon the gospel quite loses sight 
of the fact, that the salvation of souls is 
its grand design and object, to which 
mental and social improvement are only 
incidental and secondary ; that Christianity 
finds the world immersed in darkness, and 
vice, and depravity; so that its great work 
on earth is that of elaboration, of reno- 
vation, of preparation, for a higher estate 
of mature graces and perfect harmonies. 
It has, of necessity, a great deal of rough 
work to do ; its processes must be adapted 
to the material to be acted on, no less than 
to the results to be produced. The sym- 
phonies divine that charm the angels are 
not so well fitted to this sinful world, which 
has contrived to array its tempers, and 
tastes, and tendencies, against its Maker, 
in a hostility far more brutish than angelic. 



26 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

The means and appliances of the gospel, 
in order to be effective, must recognize the 
conditions and the disabilities of the beings 
over whom its conquests are to be won ; 
and whoever would be an effective co- 
worker with God in this broad field, must, 
like God, be content to accommodate his 
message and ministry to the multitude. 
Let no man who has raised himself to the 
great purpose of living for his race and 
for eternity, indulge in the idle fancy that 
he can gain his chosen end by herding 
with the philosophers, and propounding 
Christianity to the multitude in learned 
theses. Let him rather come down from 
the high places of intellectual pride, and 
put himself in communication with the 
masses. These are not yet polished, or 
intelligent, or able to appreciate all that in 
heaven will be familiar as household words. 
In the most favorable state of society which 
has ever existed on the earth, the multi- 
tude of men have been uneducated — have 
been doomed to toil, and to comparative 
poverty. To this condition of our race the 
gospel at first adapted its lessons and its 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 27 

agencies, it may be, from choice, but as- 
suredly from necessity — a necessity that 
still exists in all its force. I may add, that 
the demand for more tasteful or philo- 
sophical developments of Christianity can 
only be satisfied at the expense of the im- 
mensely important class of men for whose 
special benefit the Christian revelation 
was promulgated — for " the gospel was 
preached to the poor." The reform pro- 
posed might accommodate the tenth of a 
tithe of the population of highly civilized 
nations ; but its natural tendency would be 
to separate this favored class from the 
masses, and bring them under a Christian 
culture, the most intellectual and graceful 
it may be, but wholly inapplicable to the 
condition and wants of the people. These, 
forsaken by their natural guides, their can- 
dlesticks removed from their midst, must 
sink into hopeless impiety and ignorance 
but for God's mercy, which is wont to in- 
terpose, and raise up prophets from among 
themselves. 

But this divine interference for the pre- 
vention of results, utterly and eternally ruin- 



28 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

ous, does not adequately provide against 
some of the most deplorable evils that mar 
the piety, and fetter the energies, of the 
church. The gospel is a leveler, and con- 
templates our whole sinful race as " made 
of one blood." It will have " the rich and 
the poor meet together " at the feet of Je- 
sus, and forget all earthly distinctions in 
rapt meditation on the infinite goodness 
and glory of God, and on the heavenly 
world, to which they both look by faith, as 
to a common inheritance. It will have 
the lettered and the untaught, the high- 
born and the low, mingle before a common 
altar, and bow down before a common 
Saviour. It abhors caste, and is ambitious 
of bringing together in one vast brother- 
hood of faith, and feeling, and co-opera- 
tion, all blood-bought souls. It will have 
the rich contribute their wealth, the noble 
their influence, the learned their wisdom, 
the poor their sterling virtues, their patient 
toil, their might of sympathy and of sinew, 
to the building up of a pure and powerful 
church. It is by the combination of all 
classes, and all talents, that human society 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 29 

prospers most, and, for aught that appears, 
it is the Saviour's design to constitute and 
edify the church upon the same principle. 
Now the pride of man comes in to thwart 
this benevolent design. It will have an 
aristocracy, where Heaven can, least of all? 
tolerate it. It puts asunder what God has 
joined together. As far as the antichris- 
tian theory, against which I so earnestly 
protest, is carried out in practice, it mono- 
polizes and covers up the light. It se- 
questers talent and influence but to place 
them in positions where they act not at 
all, or at the greatest disadvantage, upon 
the general interests of religion and hu- 
manity. 

Nor must I pass over, as too unim- 
portant to deserve notice, the inevitable 
tendency of this religious exclusiveness to 
generate a spirit and a power antagonist 
to the universal equality guarantied by 
our free institutions. We have no privi- 
leged orders, nor is it likely, in the existing 
temper of the public mind, that talent, or 
wealth, or ancestry, or even great virtues, 
will ever give to their possessors a social 



30 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

position dangerous to the rights of the 
humblest citizen; but I must think the 
lovers of our republican institutions and 
manners will have some cause for solici- 
tude, if the growing tendency among our 
influential classes to desert the popular 
walks of religion, for more select and pre- 
tending connections, shall increase in a 
similar ratio for twenty or fifty years to 
come. The danger is not at all diminish- 
ed by Christian forms and names ; and a 
religious aristocracy which is completely 
sheltered under the guaranties of universal 
freedom of conscience, secured to all by 
our free institutions, has no security to give 
in return to those institutions, that it will not 
at least generate a spirit dangerous to their 
purity and perpetuity. No pride is more 
blinding and corrupting than spiritual pride, 
and men who are ever fancying themselves 
upon a lofty eminence, unconsciously ac- 
quire a habit of looking doivn upon the 
rest of the world.* 

A question of far deeper import is this : 
What are the more strictly religious effects 

* See Note A, at the end. 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 31 

of this defection from the popular Chris- 
tianity upon the persons most concerned ? 
How is it with the dainty seceders who 
loathe the manna that " covers the face of 
the wilderness," of which "every man may 
gather according to his eating," and deem 
it distasteful to receive with the multitude, 
seated on the ground, the bread which Jesus 
so liberally blesses and breaks ? Of all wh o 
lightly turn away from the lowlier faith 
of their early education and their fathers 5 
house, to rear their showy altars upon the 
high places of the land, whether seduced by 
vanity, or ambition, or fastidiousness, it may 
well be doubted if many secure more than 
the shadow of true religion. If they have 
borne with them to this false, exposed po- 
sition, some measure of spirituality, the 
growth of a more fruitful soil, and of a more 
benignant clime, it speedily withers and 
decays for want of a participation in those 
popular sympathies, from which they start 
back with a disgust so profound. Their 
dwelling places are unquestionably on the 
Parnassus or the Olympus of the Chris- 
tian world, but these mountain tops have 



32 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

neither depth of earth, nor springs of wa- 
ter, and no plant of righteousness is likely 
to strike its roots into the hard rock that 
composes their shining hut arid summits. 

Such aristocratic aspirants after a grace- 
ful piety, (I call them aristocratic for 
want of a better term to mark this per- 
verse development of Christianity,) natu- 
rally fall into two classes, and exhibit two 
great corruptions of the gospel. The more 
intellectual and philosophical part com- 
monly wander into that cold region of un- 
fruitful speculations, where rationalism or 
transcendentalism, or whatever neology 
happens to be in fashion, claims empire. 
The merely fashionable, and ambitious, 
and fastidious portion, more usually pay 
their courtly homage to graceful forms or 
venerable reminiscences, and find and ex- 
hibit, at least, some of the semblances of 
spiritual piety in the religion of the imagi- 
nation.* 

I cannot part with the topic under con- 
sideration without bestowing a passing 
thought upon the God-dishonoring senti- 

* See Note B, at the end. 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 33 

ments in which this deplorable fallacy has 
its origin. This demand for a Christianity 
more refined and tasteful than that of 
Christ, proceeds upon the assumption that 
God is specially pleased and honored by 
the conversion of persons of literary taste, 
and polished manners ; of men accustom- 
ed to good society, and well read in good 
authors. Disguise it as we will, that is 
the fundamental idea of this antichristian 
theory. Now, for aught that appears, these 
accomplishments do not figure very large* 
ly in Heaven's estimate of man. I cannot 
help suspecting that John Bunyan, John 
Nelson, and worthies of this class, wore, in 
God's sight, the insignia of a truer and 
higher nobility, than the choicest spirits of 
the brilliant eras of Elizabeth and Anne. 

What are the attributes most prized and 
most sought for in man, by the crucified 
Saviour ? Charity and purity. These are 
the cardinal virtues of the gospel. Every 
one that loveth is born of God, and know- 
eth God. If we love one another, God 
dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in 
us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in 
3 



34 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. 
The entire law is fulfilled by him who 
loves God with all the heart, and his neigh- 
bor as himself. This is glory to God in 
the highest, peace on earth, and good will 
to men. The gospel is satisfied when this 
great end is achieved, and it labors, from 
age to age, to implant this law of univer- 
sal affinity and brotherhood in all hearts, 
and thus to establish a vast system of or- 
der and divine harmony, worthy of the 
wisdom and of the mercy of God. And 
this is its primary, proper object. High in- 
tellectual culture, advanced civilization, re- 
finement of sentiments and of manners, 
do indeed attend, or rather follow, its pro- 
gress, but only as incidental results of the 
great moral changes which have their sphere 
in the moral nature and character of man. 
The moral transformation is all that the 
gospel, as such, aims to accomplish. This 
makes the sinner a child of God, fits him 
for heavenly society and pursuits, makes 
him a joint heir with Christ. These are 
no doubtful announcements, but first prin- 
ciples of the gospel, which no sane Chris- 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 35 

tian will for a moment call in question ; 
and they suggest the irresistible conclusion, 
that that is the most Christian church, and 
that the most apostolic ministry, which 
most successfully accomplish these most 
Christian ends. No matter who they are 
that are converted, and sanctified, and 
brought to heaven. The ignorant, the 
outcast, the Hottentot, the slave — these are 
Christ's well-beloved brethren, and with 
him heirs of God. The princes of this 
world may be glad to go to heaven, if they 
may, in such company, and angels would 
exult to be co-workers with God in preach- 
ing the gospel to the poor. What lesson 
of instruction do I find in this digression ? 
A stern rebuke of that wretched fastidious- 
ness which refuses to be satisfied with such 
a type of Christianity as satisfies Christ — 
demonstrative proof that this reiterated de- 
mand for a more tasteful and philosophical 
religion is unreasonable and unphiloso- 
phical, as well as unchristian — new force 
in the exhortation, " Make not provision for 
the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Would 
you find for yourselves a religion adapted 



36 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

to the soul's pressing wants, and to the de- 
mands of a perishing world ? Drink deeply 
of the Christian sentiments and sympa- 
thies of the people. "Would you act a 
heroic part in the holy war which God and 
good men are carrying on against error 
and sin ? Throw yourselves into the midst 
of the masses, where there are most hearts 
to be won, and most souls to be saved. Do 
not be for ever gazing at the toy that glit- 
ters on the top of the steeple, but bend 
your regards upon the living stones that 
compose Christ's holy temple, upon the 
undying souls that throng its inner and 
outer courts. There the true altar and the 
authorized priest are sure to be found, and 
there God has work to do for all, who, like 
his well-beloved Son, are content to aba^ 
themselves, that they may be exalted. 

I have not left time for the discussion 
of some other topics which I cannot wholly 
overlook. Educated young men often find 
another stumbling block in the presumed 
or dreaded interference of an honest con- 
secration to Christ with their ambitious, 
and, as they are prone to esteem them. 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 37 

their pure and honorable aspirations. My 
own observations on this subject would 
lead me to regard this as one of the most 
common and fatal causes of backsliding, 
as well as procrastination. Many, who 
hear and recognize the voice of God, re- 
fuse to enter his vineyard, because they 
are not quite sure that the employments 
and immunities to be assigned them there 
will be agreeable and satisfactory. Im- 
piety never assumes a more daring attitude 
than this, however the rank offense may 
be disguised or concealed by circumstances 
or by false reasonings. What is implied by 
the postponement or abandonment of a re- 
ligious course on such grounds ? Distrust 
in God is implied, and unbelief in its most 
odious, atrocious, insolent form. Has God, 
then, no right to interfere with our plans ? 
This mental discipline, and these accom- 
plishments, which are too good to be sub- 
jected to his control — were they acquired 
— are they held, on terms altogether inde- 
pendent of Jehovah ? Is the inexperienced 
youth, fresh from the schools and prover- 
bially ignorant of the world, and of the 



OO RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

future, somewhat better qualified to choose 
his own way, and thread the labyrinth of 
life alone, than God is to guide him ? You 
will not be a Christian, because that con- 
fessedly assigns you a sphere of action 
where God and conscience must be consult- 
ed. You seek a freer range and a wider 
sphere. Take them, and then inquire if 
you are beyond the domain of God. Are 
you really freer to choose or surer to win ? 
Is responsibility excluded, or danger of dis- 
appointment and disaster ? No ; for God 
reigns everywhere. All that is gained by 
this daring revolt against his authority is 
the dire privilege of working out our des- 
tiny without any promise of guidance, or 
grace, or reward, yet always under the 
divine supervision and control — always in 
conflict with his revealed will — always ob- 
noxious to his displeasure, and certain of 
ultimate ruin whatever fortunes may be 
conceded to a career which is, at best, only 
a prolonged rebellion against God. 

After saying so much of the religious 
aspects of this case, I must not omit to 
expose the shallow views of life on which 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 39 

this great practical error is based. As a class, 
truly pious men are the most fortunate in the 
world. Estimate their successes by honors 
won, by their usefulness, by their attain- 
ments, or by their enjoyments, and these 
persons greatly outstrip their competitors. 
I will not stop to inquire why it is so, 
though I doubt not there is in the thing 
both a divine providence and a divine phi- 
losophy. Heaven guides and cheers on 
the man who is content to receive his com- 
mission from above, while the virtues and 
safeguards of religion do naturally minis- 
ter to his successes even in secular pur- 
suits. The fact, however, is all I contend 
for here. Common experience is a demon- 
stration that godliness is profitable for this 
life, as well as that to come. It is some- 
thing more than impiety — it is gross,"blind 
folly, for a young man, setting out in life, 
to guard against the disturbing influence 
of religion in the settlement of his plans. 
God is likely to be his wisest counselor, 
and his most powerful auxiliary, and to 
exalt him in proportion to the humility of 
his submission to the divine authority. 



40 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

I must add another remark. It is un- 
questionably true that piety often pro- 
motes, while it seldom retards, a man's 
progress in the world, It is no less so, and 
no less proper to mark the fact, that men 
who seek to make of religious pretensions, 
and church relations, instruments of ambi- 
tion or gain, are almost sure of meeting 
with signal disappointment. Success in 
such attempts would offer a dangerous 
temptation to human virtue, and fill the 
churches with hypocrites ; but success in 
such attempts, in such a country as this, 
where the government is neutral, and all 
sects have fair play, is nearly impossible. 
Aristocracy in religion meets with a potent 
antagonist in the legal and social democ- 
racy that universally prevails. Proscription 
for religious opinions is nearly impractica- 
ble in any form, where there is a multitude 
of sects, and the weak are prone to unite 
against any encroachment by the strong. 
In such a state of things there is an open 
field for industry and merit, in which no 
sectarian badge can win or lose the prize. 
There is no reward for the hypocrisy which 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 41 

would profess, or the base cowardice, or 
heartless prudence, which would shun to 
profess, any opinion or bear any name, for 
selfish objects. The temptation to sin in 
this matter is really so weak that there is lit- 
tle need of providing any safeguard against 
it, beyond a statement such as has been 
made. Neither cupidity nor vanity has 
much to gain by " making provision for 
the flesh," when neither emolument nor 
influence are to be won by recreancy to 
principle. 

The short-sighted ambition which covets 
higher and brighter spheres of effort and 
manifestation than comport with the claims 
of duty, or the arrangements of Providence, 
is wont to fall into another capital error. 
In paying to circumstances their vain 
court for facilities and rewards, seldom 
granted but as the fruit of patient labor 
and practical self-denial, these impatient 
aspirants after distinction are insensibly 
led away from the only theatre of action 
adapted to their character and attainments. 
Talent is ever best developed, and common- 
ly best rewarded, where it is most wanted. 



42 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

It should therefore respect the great laws of 
demand and supply ; and while the wide 
earth and boundless sea are open to its en- 
terprise, should never press too eagerly into 
petty, glutted marts. An educated Christian 
young man, who, in all the attainable good 
before him, has eyes to see something bet- 
ter and nobler than mere pecuniary gain, 
cannot fail to perceive a most hopeful field 
of usefulness in his connection with one 
of the great popular Christian denomina- 
tions of this country. It is unavoidable, 
that among the vast multitudes, so rapidly 
gathered into these broad folds by primi- 
tive zeal and labors, many will lack culture, 
and intelligence, and refinement. Edu- 
cation and literature, polished eloquence, 
and profound learning, naturally follow, 
though they seldom precede, the greatest 
successes of young and rising sects. "When 
such wants are most pressing, precisely 
then is there likely to exist the most urgent 
demand for such qualifications to satisfy 
them. 

A religious community whose successes 
have outstripped ail its anticipations, sud- 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 43 

denty finds itself responsible for the intel- 
lectual, as well as moral, improvement of 
millions. It has reached a point in its his- 
tory where a demand for cultivated talent 
is of the most urgent character. It must 
have educated men ; and literary attain- 
ment, when united with piety and good 
sense, is sure to be placed in positions 
the most favorable for the efficient exer- 
tion of extensive and salutary influence. 
It almost necessarily happens that learning, 
and eloquence, and refinement, acquire a 
consideration and a power to do good, 
great in proportion to then scarcity, and to 
the multitude of demands upon such qua- 
lifications. Just such a theatre as enlight- 
ened, sanctified ambition should most de- 
sire, is here opened to the Christian youth. 
It proffers useful, congenial, and honor- 
able employment. It insures the earliest, 
fullest development of his mental and moral 
resources. It promises all reasonable and 
desirable exemption from the tedious proba- 
tion and discouraging competition which he 
may be doomed to encounter elsewhere. It 
offers him equal and honorable partnership 



44 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

in the holy work of training a host of im- 
mortal beings for usefulness, purity, happi- 
ness, and heaven. The folly of turning 
away from these outspread fields waving 
with golden harvests, and echoing all around 
with Macedonian cries for more laborers, 
is only less than the guilt which is always 
superadded, when, in addition to this con- 
tempt for the suggestions of a sound dis- 
cretion, some violence is also inflicted upon 
the conscience. And here I cannot refrain 
from a passing remark on the benignant 
relations which religion ever sustains to 
the practical movements of business and 
of life. So nicely and so graciously is the 
great scheme of an overruling, watchful 
providence, adapted to our various circum- 
stances, that the most inexperienced youth 
— the merest novice in affairs- — has little 
more to do, than simply to obey the dic- 
tates of an enlightened conscience, in or- 
der to secure all the advantages of the 
most comprehensive and well-digested 
plans, and of the deepest insight into the 
future. An unwavering trust in God and 
his word is the best guide, as well as 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 45 

the best safeguard. It is a great simplifier 
of life's complicated pursuits, and endows 
each single-hearted follower of Jesus Christ 
with a precocious, heavenly wisdom. 

In anything I have said, I do not mean 
to intimate that both our actual piety and 
our Christian profession may not involve 
the most serious consequences. I know too 
well the genius of the gospel, to inculcate a 
doctrine so foreign from its avowals and its 
spirit. Great sufferings and great sacrifices 
do, unquestionably, enter into God's en- 
tire scheme for diffusing and propagating 
the true religion, and for the moral discipline 
of individuals. Christ was made perfect by 
suffering, and through much nibulation we 
are called to enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. Afflictions work out for the saints 
an exceeding weight of glory. Not only 
are Christians subject to the common lot 
of mortals, which is usually one of many 
pains and sorrows, but they are often call- 
ed to suffer for Christ's sake. It is funda- 
mental to the Christian system that men 
were redeemed by suffering, and hardly 
less so, as far as history is our teacher. 



46 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

that the best achievements of the gospel 
are to be carried in the midst of peril, and 
loss, and agony. In this great work of 
toil and sacrifice, it is no doubt the will of 
God that young men, and educated young 
men, shall have a principal share. God 
chooses them because they are strong, and 
he intends to make them the chief of his 
instruments for the accomplishment of his 
great designs of mercy. Let them look their 
calling fairly in the face, and enter on the 
career of duty, well aware of the conditions 
upon which they serve a crucified Redeem- 
er. None more need to stir up the gift that is 
within them, to gird about then loins, and 
put on the armor of righteousness. I may 
safely say that no policy is so dangerous 
as caution and cowardice. I may confi- 
dently warn them of the folly and danger 
of " making provision for the flesh," by re- 
fraining from such a dedication as may 
exact from them the sternest conditions 
known to our Christian vocation. If great 
results can be attained by great efforts and 
great sufferings, what generous heart will 
refuse the sacrifice ? If, our own holiness 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 47 

and the happiness of others may be pro- 
moted in proportion to the expenditure of 
toil, or talent, or wealth, who will not feel 
that the outlay is reasonable and even po- 
litic ? But the argument likely to be most 
effectual with ingenuous and truly pious 
minds is derived from the genius of our 
religion. The gospel is a way of salvation 
by grace. It lays the Christian under ob- 
ligations immeasurably sfrong, which he 
can never satisfy, while it awakens in him 
a sense of gratitude ever restless and stu- 
dious of methods by which it may testify 
its loyalty, and crown with honor the great 
Benefactor, who is too high to be repaid 
for all his mercies. This deep, undying 
sentiment of the pious soul, finds utterance 
in thanksgiving and adoration — in prayer 
for the extension of the kingdom of Christ, 
and in all the ways by which a sincere 
Christian makes manifestation of his piety. 
But the unwasted, struggling impulse gains 
strength by all its activities, and longs for 
new modes of exercise and development. 
Dissatisfied with the little it can do for the 
glory of the Saviour, it would gladly give 



48 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

its testimony by suffering. This feeling is 
natural ; and it is strong in every bosom 
in proportion as piety is profound and in- 
tense. It has led many misguided Chris- 
tians to devote themselves to penances and 
voluntary inflictions. It led the apostles to 
rejoice " that they were counted worthy to 
suffer for Christ." Paul avowed a desire to 
endure martyrdom for the satisfaction of 
this profound sentiment, and many early 
Christians joyfully submitted to the se- 
verest tortures as a testimony of their 
devotion and gratitude to Christ. Not 
many in these days of peace and tol- 
eration are likely to be called to pass 
through such an ordeal ; but if the spirit 
to suffer the loss of all things for Christ's 
sake be not still with us, then has 
the true glory of the church perished with 
her martyrs. Doubtless this spirit yet lives, 
and would be made manifest by fitting oc- 
casions. Doubtless there are multitudes 
who would encounter losses of all sorts — 
privations, labors, and even death itself — 
for the crucified Redeemer. They remem- 
ber his words, that if any love father, or 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 49 

mother, or brother, or sister, or houses, or 
lands, more than him, he cannot be a 
disciple. They remember that it is often 
more prudent to lose the life than to save 
it. Many even feel that they have a bap- 
tism to be baptized with, and are sfraiten- 
ed till they perform it. They are eager to 
live, and, if needs be, to die for Christ. 
They have " put on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and made no provision for the flesh, to ful- 
fill the lusts thereof." Their cry is, " Speak, 
Lord, thy servant heareth." They are not 
careful to make conditions. Wheresoever 
God's Spirit or providence will lead, they 
stand ready to go ; neither do they call any- 
thing their own which they possess, whether 
of talent, learning, position, wealth, or in- 
fluence ; but regard themselves only as 
stewards of the manifold grace of God, and 
servants to the church for Christ's sake. 
These are Christians such as Christ came 
down from heaven to raise up. They are 
the messengers of his mercy — ministers 
of grace. Then* hearts throb in unison 
with Christ — their ears are open to every 
Macedonian cry. The church, this coun- 



50 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

try, the age, and state of the world, want 
such Christians, and only want enough 
such, speedily to cover the earth with 
righteousness. 

I have no higher wish on behalf of the 
young men whom I now address, than to 
see them thoroughly imbued with the 
spirit of such a religion as I have attempted 
to exhibit. Put on, my friends, put ye on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not pro- 
vision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts 
thereof. I may claim to feel the profound- 
est interest in your wellfare, but I am not 
afraid to trust you to the guidance of such 
auspices. Go forth clad in these robes of 
purity and beauty, protected by this impene- 
trable armor of righteousness, and none who 
love you will have anything to fear or to de- 
sire beyond. Christ will guide you aright. 
Precisely into such positions as are best 
suited to your talents, and most adapted to 
usefulness, will he be sure to lead you. 
And this is the only way for attaining at 
once the highest happiness and the most 
perfect development of the intellectual and 
moral powers. Here you are sure of hav- 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 51 

ing " grace sufficient for you," and that is 
the only sure pledge and hope for eminent 
success. Here alone you secure that har- 
mony and co-operation of the moral with 
the mental forces ; that concurrence of the 
emotions with the intellect, indispensable 
to the fullest development, and the highest 
achievements, of a human being. 

I shall close by making of the exhorta- 
tion in the text a special application to 
those who hear me. I am too intimate 
with the liabilities and the actual history 
of young men, not to be aware that many 
of them act in direct opposition to the les- 
sons inculcated in this discourse. They 
deliberately u put off the Lord Jesus Christ," 
and that for the very purpose of making 
provision for satisfying the lusts of the 
flesh. They have found unexpected dif- 
ficulties in the way of a religious life on 
their first entrance upon the scenes of pub- 
lic education. The buoyancy and the 
levity of youth, the confluence of a mul- 
titude of petty temptations, small but eager 
rivalries, new demands upon time, and a 
new arrangement of their hours, the esprit 



52 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

du corps which too often operates to an 
extent incompatible with an easy discharge 
of the highest moral duties ; these, and 
many more nameless evils, often combine 
to test whatever integrity and strength of 
religious principle and habit the inexpe- 
rienced youth may have brought from 
more quiet scenes to the threshold of col- 
lege life. A brief season of trial, a manly 
bearing in the face of danger, an honest 
recurrence to first principles — more than 
all, humble reliance upon God, and a 
conscientious observance of the duties of 
religion, would soon overcome difficulties 
which are only formidable from their no- 
velty and their number. At this precise 
point not a few who come among us, with 
the fairest promise, abandon their religion. 
Some do it with apparent deliberation, and 
at once ; others gradually, and, it may be, 
insensibly, but none the less effectually and 
fatally. A vague purpose is commonly 
cherished of resuming it again under more 
favorable auspices, when temptations shall 
be fewer or weaker, and better helps avail- 
able. But for the present they put off 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 53 

Christ, and get their education and form 
their character without him, seeming to 
regard themselves more free than before 
to indulge in doubtful pleasures and asso- 
ciations, and still more to omit the dis- 
tinctive duties and manifestations of a 
Christian profession. If conscience at 
first interpose some obstacles in the way 
of such a defection, it soon accommodates 
itself with a vicious facility to the cherished 
inclinations of the heart. I have often 
seen a hopefully pious youth thus throw 
away his armor in the day of battle, putting 
off Christ just when he most needs to put 
him on — entering on a career of many 
dangers without religion, just because he 
thinks it will be difficult or unpleasant to 
get along with religion. He thus fairly 
uncovers his bosom to the envenomed 
shaft. He invites, yea, compels God to 
forsake him, and then rushes, blind and 
naked, into the midst of his foes. I speak, 
young gentlemen, of an experience not 
unknown among you ; not to reproach, 
but to warn. Some may have gone so 
far in this downward career, and ,have 



54 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

drunken so deeply of the cup of cursing 
which they have chosen, that the voice of 
affectionate admonition will be lost upon 
them. Not so, I trust, with others who 
hear me. The agony is not yet over with 
them. Shamefully have they slighted, 
deeply have they grieved, the Saviour; 
but their hearts yet beat quickly and sor- 
rowfully when they look upon Him whom 
they have pierced. You who have made 
a trial of this style in religion, say, Is it 
satisfactory ? Does it shield you in the day 
of peril? The enjoyments, the lusts of 
the flesh, for which you have provided at 
such enormous expense, are they, upon 
the whole, better than the peace of God 
and the love of Christ which you have 
lost ? If you look back with desire and 
self-reproach, then you have still a taste 
and a conscience for better things, and 
may, I trust will, rally and struggle to 
regain the position you have rashly aban- 
doned. 

Those who are about to leave this arena 
of preparation to enter upon new scenes 
of life, and engage in fresh enterprises, I 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 55 

beseech to listen to the instructions of this 
occasion. Do not venture to take a step 
into this dark, troublesome world, now 
opening before you, without a divine 
guide. You I may exhort with special 
emphasis, " Put ye on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, 
to fulfill the lusts thereof." Fear to move 
in the grave matter of choosing your pro- 
fession, and forming the more permanent 
plans and relations of life, before you as- 
sume your proper religious position, and 
are thus enabled to act under divine direc- 
tion. You may not neglect this duty with- 
out incurring the entire forfeiture of God's 
promises and grace. Let me inquire of 
you, with an earnestness and solemnity 
befitting the importance of the interests 
involved, whether you have hitherto been 
true to your convictions of duty, whether 
your plans of life have thus far been form- 
ed prayerfully and conscientiously, in the 
best moods of your religious feelings, when 
you most fully appreciated Christ's su- 
preme claims? Are there not in your 
bosoms half-stifled convictions, slumber- 



56 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

ing recollections of unpaid vows made 
under circumstances of deepest solemnity ? 
Look over these archives of conscience 
with heedful deliberation. Resolutions, 
formed when your bosoms glowed with 
zeal and love for Christ, are most likely 
to be the wisest and the best. Bring your- 
selves back to the same moral attitude, 
and review these high, holy purposes, 
under the same clear manifestations that 
led to then formation, or you are likely to 
sin against your own souls irretrievably. 
" Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ," and 
then choose your way under his divine 
auspices. See to it that you make no 
provision for the flesh in this deeply in- 
teresting crisis of your endless being. For 
God's sake do not blunder here. Remem- 
ber you choose for eternity, and that an 
error at this point must give a wrong di- 
rection to all your future career. You 
determine what you will do for Christ, and 
for men, and for your own souls. Choose 
honestly ; choose bravely ; fearing no la- 
bors, or crosses, or sufferings. Better far 
than honors or crowns are the sacrifices 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 57 

which fidelity to Christ shall impose upon 
you. 

There is among our educated Christian 
young men a grievous offense, so common 
as to have become a sign of the times, and 
so full of evil tendencies as to call loudly 
for exposure and denunciation. I refer to 
the levity with which so many treat their 
early vows of consecration to the Christian 
ministry. Under convictions of duty and 
of a heavenly calling, always deeply felt 
and gratefully recognized in seasons of 
high religious enjoyment and spiritual 
devotion, they begin or prosecute their 
literary career as a preparatory training for 
the sacred office. With seasons of de- 
pression or declension come doubts, and 
reluctance, and dissatisfaction, with plans 
of life which really present few alluring 
aspects to the lukewarm, worldly-minded 
Christian. Such occasions are often chosen 
for testing the validity of the call to a work 
involving many sacrifices, and for which 
high sphituality and entire consecration to 
Christ are, confessedly, indispensable quali- 
fications. It is then no difficult task to 



58 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

discover deficiences which the least sensi- 
tive conscience must feel, and which there 
is even a strong temptation to magnify as 
the means of obtaining a release from obli- 
gations hitherto deemed sacred and invio- 
lable. I have briefly indicated the process 
by which many of our Christian students, 
designated for the ministry by the most 
unequivocal marks of a divine vocation, 
contrive to stifle their own convictions, 
and elude the sacred claims of the church 
and of the crucified Saviour. I can truly 
affirm that no other instances of religious 
defection and recreancy to sacred duties 
are wont to fill me with a sorrow so pro- 
found and inconsolable. I habitually look 
upon pious students with the deepest 
interest, as in a peculiar sense the property 
of Christ, not only as the purchase of his 
blood and the trophies of grace, but as the 
probable and fit instruments to be chosen 
for the enlargement of his kingdom. It is 
to be expected that many, so providentially 
prepared by literary training, should be 
divinely called to the ministry of recon- 
ciliation; and it is matter of unfeigned 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 59 

thankfulness, but none of surprise, that so 
large a proportion of converted students 
become deeply impressed with the duty 
of devoting themselves to this great work. 
Few, I believe, who maintain a devotional, 
cross-bearing spirit, ever fall into serious 
or lasting doubts about the authenticity 
of their heavenly calling. They may be per- 
mitted to pass through seasons of trial and 
self-examination for the establishment of 
their faith and for the attainment of a 
higher moral preparation for the exigences 
of their holy vocation ; but few sincere souls, 
I am persuaded, will ever be left to dis- 
card, as the result of fancy or of enthusiasm, 
these awful impressions of the highest 
duty. They who have been seduced by 
ambition, or indolence, or unbelief, or self- 
indulgence, from the higher walks of piety, 
do, indeed, bring upon themselves a moral 
state to which distrust, and distaste, and 
absolute repugnance, in regard to their 
proper mission, are natural and unavoid- 
able. They are no longer fit to be ministers 
of Christ; but this does not annul their 
call nor its binding obligations. The bur- 



60 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

den rests upon them none the less because 
the strength to hear it is gone. They have 
clearly fallen into the snare of the devil, 
and there is only one way of escape. They 
must revert to first principles, or be irre- 
trievably ruined. They must return to 
their first love — must revisit the sunny re- 
gions of divine grace and manifestation, 
where clear convictions and holy aspira- 
tions domineer over the soul — where love, 
and faith, and joy in the Holy Ghost im- 
part strength to sustain and light to guide. 
There is really no other alternative be- 
sides such a spiritual revival, for any who 
lack the nerve, to conclude that they can 
get along, in life and in death, without a 
Saviour. To keep this an open question, 
with some latent floating purpose, to take 
advantage of a day of feeble impulses and 
dim manifestation for sliding away into 
a secular profession, is to impose upon 
the mind and the heart an intolerable bur- 
den, the ominous pledge of comfortless 
progress, and of ultimate, shameful dis- 
comfiture. The interests of both worlds 
are equally concerned in such a choice of 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 61 

occupation as shall leave the conscience 
free to approve, and God free to patronize. 
To those who are rather timid than rebel- 
lions, and have still a sponger desire to win 
the crown than dread of bearing the cross, 
it may be right to point ont the vast re- 
sources placed at their disposal, and of 
which they receive the investiture on as- 
suming their true position; but it must, 
after all, be admitted to be the mark of a 
degraded moral tone for a Christian man 
to manifest much anxiety for anything be- 
yond the doing of his duy. It has been 
well said that events belong to God; and 
it may be added, that we are likely to be 
made happier, as well as better and abler 
men, by every encounter with difficulties 
and every blast of adversity. These are 
God's chosen methods of discipline, and 
his appointed conditions of all eminent 
success. So true is this, even in common 
life, that we do not hesitate to pronounce the 
most unfavorable auguries of an educated 
young man, who, in his plans of life, makes 
an over-careful provision for self-indulgence 
and an exemption from severe toils and 



62 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

trials. If he will not push from the shore 
till he has taken pledges for a smooth sea 
and a favorable breeze— if he must, at all 
events, have sumptuous fare, and fine linen, 
and houses of cedar, he insists on conditions 
which neither Heaven nor earth will grant, 
and which are wholly incompatible with 
the performance of great actions, or the 
formation of great characters. In religion, 
this timid, selfish spirit, to whatever extent 
it may exist, is subversive of the best prin- 
ciples of the gospel. It is utterly incom- 
patible with faith, and in itself a mortal 
sin. We may not inquire too anxiously 
what Christ will demand of us in reUirn 
for the blood he has shed and the heaven 
he has prepared for us ; but we know he 
will have nothing less than entire conse- 
cration ; and that we are to be ever ready 
" not only to be bound, but also to die, for 
the name of the Lord Jesus." It is pre- 
cisely at this point of entire self-renun- 
ciation that the soul becomes endowed 
with the power of an endless life, and 
can do all things, through Christ. If this 
is an excellent attainment, usually reserved 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 63 

for advanced piety and matured graces, it 
may, nevertheless, become the starting 
point of every Christian young man. Let 
him put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
make no provision for the flesh, and he 
obtains the mastery over all resources, 
human and divine, needful to the fulfill- 
ment of a glorious destiny. 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 65 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE A —Page 30, 

I shall have been greatly misunder- 
stood if it is inferred from the statements 
and reasonings of this discourse, that I enter- 
tain uncharitable views, or would call in 
question the sincere piety and Christian 
virtues of the religious denominations of 
this country. My single object is, to ex- 
pose a practical and most pernicious error, 
which is perpetually forced upon my atten- 
tion by my position, and by some acquaint- 
ance with the present condition of the 
American church. It is no reflection upon 
the conscientious and devout members of 
any Christian sect to intimate that persons, 
attracted to its communion, or its ministry, 
by other than strictly religious considera- 
tions, are not very likely to become emi- 
nent for Christian attainments or useful- 
ness. It is well understood, that such 
5 



66 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

proselytes are frequently admitted into 
their new relations with a degree of dis- 
trust and caution, of which no conjecture 
could be formed from the eclat which is 
given to their conversions by a sectarian 
press. In that particular branch of the 
church which numerically profits most by 
the tendency I have exposed, a conviction 
is evidently gaining ground, that it is better 
policy, upon the whole, to train up its own 
ministry than to open so wide a door to 
recruits from the seminaries and pulpits 
of other* denominations. Moderate men 
are becoming startled at the vaulting speed 
with which the neophyte so generally 
hastens to embrace the most extreme 
opinions and policy known to his new 
sphere of speculation and activity ; while, 
to considerate men of all parties,, it must 
be obvious, that however a deep, heredi- 
tary reverence for imposing forms, and 
high, exclusive claims, may be compatible 
with humble, evangelical piety in persons 
trained, from their childhood, under such 
influences, there may, at least, be some 
danger to the unstable, giddy mind of the 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 67 

novice, who, without any such safeguards, 
is suddenly brought in contact with ideas, 
to him so new and so magnificent. 

I hope I shall not be thought to bestow 
upon this topic a measure of attention 
greater than its intrinsic importance. As 
a practical question, its importance is every 
day increasing in this county, and the 
time may not be far away when it will 
force itself upon the consideration of all 
thoughtful minds. As a mere sectarian 
question, it may well enough be regarded 
as nivial ; for it is of little consequence to 
the enlightened Christian whether the los- 
ing party suffer, more by mortification than 
the winning gains by the enjoyment of a 
petty triumph. There are considerations, 
however, of far deeper import both to the 
individual seceder and to the cause of our 
common Christianity. These easy transi- 
tions from the church in which we were 
reared, or into which we have been provi- 
dentially led to enter, on our conversion^ 
to another, however pure or orthodox, can 
hardly ever be effected without injury to 
the cause of Christ: and I must think 



68 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

them almost never innocent, unless when 
they are prompted by strictly conscientious 
motives. It would generally be better to 
submit to great inconveniences, and even 
to tolerate slight errors in doctrine or disci- 
pline, rather than resort to a remedy so 
violent and dangerous. To the individual 
himself it is likely to prove a very hazard- 
ous experiment to forsake the hereditary, 
or the chosen, communion for another. 
He deprives himself of advantages not to 
be expected from new religious associa- 
tions, however pure and elevating. Ties, 
which religion sanctifies and strengthens 
for itself, are weakened or broken asunder. 
The genial sympathies of domestic piety 
are chilled; the unquestioned authority 
of hereditary faith is shaken, and all 
the nameless influences that guard and 
help a youth, seeking and serving God in 
the midst of his kindred, and under the 
approving and watchful eyes of the good 
men with whose faces and names are 
associated his hallowed recollections and 
impressions of the Lord's house, are all 
utterlv lost, I will not affirm that such 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 69 

evils uniformly result from such defections, 
nor that they are, in all cases, of sufficient 
force to interfere fatally with the successful 
prosecution of a religious life. It is no 
exaggeration, however, to say that they are 
not of rare occurrence, and that they are 
wont to exert a very pernicious influence 
on personal piety. 

Evils, of a still graver character than 
any that befall the individual, are likely to 
follow such recreancy. In proportion to 
his position and influence does he inflict 
upon the church and the general interests 
of religion the greatest calamity ; not chiefly 
by withdrawing his talents and resources 
from then appropriate sphere of usef illness, 
but by grieving pious souls — by awaken- 
ing distrust of his own sincerity, and 
resentment for his recreancy, and by pro- 
voking uncharitableness, jealousy, sectari- 
anism, and evil-speaking, in multitudes of 
professing Christians. I have usually been 
led to doubt whether an influential layman 
or a minister can ever reasonably expect 
to do as much good, in any new church 
relations, as he unavoidably does harm 



70 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

by violating the old. It should be kept 
in view in estimating the probable effects 
of such changes, that a man never carries 
with him into his new field of action 
more than a small portion of the influence, 
and other means of usefulness, which he 
had acquired by faithful services and an 
upright walk. Of these he is destined to 
make, at least, a partial forfeiture by the 
transition, and years must probably elapse 
before he can regain the vantage ground 
which he has so lightly abandoned. Sus- 
pected, or denounced, by those whom he 
deserts, he must pass a long probation ere 
he wins the confidence of his new asso- 
ciates. 

Upon the irreligious world the effect 
of such instability is yet more observa- 
ble and pernicious. It leads to a dis- 
trust of all pretensions to piety, and goes 
far to confirm the too prevalent suspi- 
cion, that when educated or influential 
men become religious, they have com- 
monly some selfish end to subserve. 
What gives additional force to such sus- 
picions is the notorious fact that the transi- 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 71 

tion, frequently as it occurs of late, is almost 
never made where any personal sacrifice, 
present or prospective, is involved. I 
do not allow myself to doubt that, in 
several instances, at least, educated men 
and ministers have felt constrained to give 
np old, and contract new, church relations ; 
but I can scarcely recollect a case in which 
the change was made in the face of losses 
or sufferings. It is usually from low to 
higher salaries — from more to less labor 
or exposure — from less cultivated, or weal- 
thy, or fashionable communities, to those 
deemed more so. I would not dare express 
or indulge distrust in regard to the motives 
which, in any particular instance, may have 
led to such changes ; but the facts to which 
I have adverted are incontrovertible, as they 
are universally known. There are few 
observing or prominent Christians, I appre- 
hend, who have not had some occasion to 
receive, in silence, the cutting rebukes which 
irreligious men are accustomed to visit on 
such transactions. I am free to confess 
that, in my opinion, no measure of blame 
or reproaches can possibly transcend the 



72 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

demerits of a man who, for any reasons 
lower or weaker than such as are strictly 
conscientious and constraining, puts in 
jeopardy so many of the precious interests 
of religion. He betrays a sacred trust. 
Up to the full measure of his influence, 
and talents, and position, he inflicts a griev- 
ous wrong upon the communion in whose 
bosom he has been nurtured, or into which 
he has obtained admission. He dimi- 
nishes its ability to do good, and casts a 
doubt on its purity, or orthodoxy. If a 
minister, set apart and ordained as a teach- 
er of religion, and a dispenser of its holy 
sacraments, his power to do evil is greatly 
augmented, and with it the guilt of such 
a defection. His new investiture of eccle- 
siastical authority and dignity is equivalent 
to a public declaration that others are but 
rash intruders into the sacred office. He 
thus wounds their reputation and weakens 
their influence. As far as in him lies, he 
shakes the confidence of the people in their 
pastors, and despoils their message of its 
power over the sinner's conscience. He 
denies the character and immunities of 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 73 

Christ's ministers, not to a few obscure 
individuals, but to nine-tenths of all the 
consecrated men upon whom the popula- 
tion of this great country depend for reli- 
gious instruction and consolation. I am 
ready to admit that conviction may be so 
clear and controlling as to make it a good 
man's duty to act in defiance of all these 
considerations ; but no sane mind can, for 
a moment, hesitate to believe that to do 
so, on lower grounds, is one of the gravest 
offenses against religion of which a human 
being can be guilty. 



74 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 



NOTE B —Page 32, 

The strong tendency in our religious 
operations to gather the rich and the poor 
into separate folds^ and so to generate and 
establish in the church distinctions utterly 
at variance with the spirit of our political 
institutions, is the very worst result of the 
multiplication of sects among us ; and I 
fear it must be admitted that the evil is 
greatly aggravated by the otherwise be- 
nignant working of the voluntary system. 
Without insisting further upon the proba- 
ble or possible injury which may befall our 
free country from this conflict of agencies, 
ever the most powerful in the formation of 
national and individual character, no one, 
I am sure, can fail to recognize in this de- 
velopment an influence utterly and irre- 
concilably hostile to the genius and che- 
rished objects of Christianity. It is the 
peculiar glory of the gospel, that, even un- 
der the most arbitrary governments, it has 
usually been able to vindicate and practi- 
cally exemplify the essential equality of 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 75 

man. It has had one doctrine and one 
hope for all its children ; and the highest 
and the lowest have been consttained to 
acknowledge one holy law of brotherhood 
in the common faith of which they are 
made partakers. Nowhere else, I be- 
lieve, but in the United States — certainly 
nowhere else to the same extent — does 
this antichristian separation of classes pre- 
vail in the Christian church. The beggar 
in his tattered vestments walks the splendid 
courts of St. Peter's, and kneels at its costly 
altars by the side of dukes and cardinals. 
The peasant in his wooden shoes is wel- 
comed in the gorgeous churches of Notre 
Dame and the Madeline ; and even in 
England, where political and social dis- 
tinctions are more rigorously enforced than 
in any other country on earth, the lord and 
the peasant, the richest and the poorest, 
are usually occupants of the same church, 
and partakers of the same communion. 
That the reverse of all this is true in many 
parts of this country, every observing man 
knows full well : and what is yet more de- 
plorable, while the lines of demarkation 



76 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

between the different classes have already 
become sufficiently distinct, the tendency 
is receiving new strength and develop- 
ment in a rapidly augmenting ratio. Even 
in country places, where the population is 
sparse, and the artificial distinctions of so- 
ciety are little known, the working of this 
strange element is, in many instances, 
made manifest, and a petty coterie of vil- 
lage magnates may be found worshiping 
God apart from the body of the people. 
But the evil is much more apparent, as 
well as more deeply seated, in our populous 
towns, where the causes which produce it 
have been longer in operation, and have 
more fully enjoyed the favor of circum- 
stances. In these great centres of wealth, 
intelligence, and influence, the separation 
between the classes is, in many instances, 
complete, and in many more the process 
is rapidly progressive. There are crowded 
religious congregations composed so ex- 
clusively of the wealthy as scarcely to em- 
brace an indigent family or individual; 
and the number of such churches, where 
the gospel is never preached to the poor, 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 11 

is constantly increasing. Rich men, in- 
stead of associating themselves with then- 
more humble fellow Christians, where 
then* money as well as their influence and 
counsels are so much needed, usually 
combine to erect magnificent churches, in 
which sittings are too expensive for any 
but people of fortune, and from which their 
less-favored brethren are as effectually and 
peremptorily excluded as if there were dis- 
honor or contagion in their presence. A 
congregation is thus constituted, able, 
without the slightest inconvenience, to 
bear the pecuniary burdens of twenty 
churches, monopolizing and consigning 
to comparative inactivity intellectual, mo- 
ral, and material resources, for want of 
which so many other congregations are 
doomed to struggle with the most em- 
barrassing difficulties. Can it for a mo- 
ment be thought, that such a state of things 
is desirable, or in harmony with the spirit 
and design of the gospel ? 

A more difficult question arises when 
we inquire after a remedy for evils too 
glaring to be overlooked, and too grave to 



78 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

be tolerated without an effort to palliate, if 
not to remove them. The most obvious 
palliative, and one which has already been 
tried to some extent by wealthy churches 
or individuals, is the erection of free places 
of worship for the poor. Such a provi- 
sion for this class of persons would be 
more effectual in any other part of the 
world than in the United States. Whether 
it arises from the operation of our political 
system, or from the easy attainment of at 
least the prime necessaries of life, the 
poorer classes here are characterized by a 
proud spirit, which will not submit to re- 
ceive even the highest benefits in any form 
that implies inferiority or dependence. 
This strong and prevalent feeling must 
continue to interpose serious obstacles in 
the way of these laudable attempts. If in 
a few instances churches for the poor have 
succeeded in our large cities, where the 
theory of social equality is so imperfectly 
realized in the actual condition of the peo- 
ple, and where the presence of a multitude 
of indigent foreigners tends to lower the 
sentiment of independence so strong in 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN, 79 

native-born Americans, the system is yet 
manifestly incapable of general application 
to the religions wants of onr population. 
The same difficulty usually occurs in all 
attempts to induce the humbler classes to 
worship with the rich in sumptuous 
churches by reserving for then* benefit a 
portion of the sittings free, or at a nominal 
rent. A few only can be found who are 
willing to be recognized and provided for 
as beneficiaries and paupers, while the 
multitude will always prefer to make great 
sacrifices in order to provide for themselves 
in some humbler fane. It must be ad- 
mitted that this subject is beset with 
practical difficulties, which are not likely 
to be removed speedily, or without some 
great and improbable revolution in our 
religious affairs. Yet if the respectable 
Christian denominations most concerned 
in the subject shall pursue a wise and 
liberal policy for the future, something may 
be done to check the evil. They may re- 
tard its rapid growth, perhaps, though it 
will most likely be found impossible to 
eradicate it altogether. It ought to be well 



80 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

understood, that the multiplication of mag- 
nificent churches is dayly making the line 
of demarkation between the rich andthepoor 
more and more palpable and impassable. 
There are many good reasons for the erec- 
tion of such edifices. Increasing wealth and 
civilization seem to call for a liberal and taste- 
ful outlay in behalf of religion, yet is it the 
dictate of prudence no less than of duty 
to balance carefully the good and the evil 
of every enterprise. It should ever be kept 
in mind, that such a church virtually writes 
above its sculptured portals an irrevocable 
prohibition to the poor, " Procul o procul 
este profani." 

I will not pretend to determine how 
far it might be wise, even if it were 
practicable, to check the liberal spirit now 
so active in multiplying sumptuous re- 
ligious edifices. We have perhaps more 
encouragement to look in another direc- 
tion for the melioration desired. There 
can be no doubt that a general increase of 
humble, spiritual religion would operate 
as a powerful check upon the prevailing 
disposition to prefer communion with opu- 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 81 . 

lent congregations, rather than pursue the 
walks of a lowlier piety in company with 
the poor. The same good ends would be 
further promoted by the increasing preva- 
lence of a liberal catholic spirit. A de- 
cided and simultaneous advance in piety 
and charity, though it should stop short of 
harmonizing conflicting sects and opinions, 
and bringing then votaries to worship in a 
common temple, might yet be sufficient to 
reach and considerably mitigate some of 
the greatest hardships to which I have ad- 
verted. In such an improved state of 
Christian sentiment, a congregation, or a 
sect, opulent in intellectual or pecuniary 
means, beyond the ratio of its numbers, 
might easily confer the greatest benefits 
on the feeble and destitute. A wealthy 
denomination with few of the poor under 
its ministry, and with little access to this 
class, would then be inclined to aid those 
who are providentially called to preach the 
gospel to the masses. How easily might 
one of our great metropolitan churches re- 
lieve a dozen poor congregations from the 
burden of debts, or other embarrassments, 
6 



82 RESOURCES AND DUTIES OF 

under which they are left to struggle on 
from year to year ! What inestimable bene- 
fits might a denomination, at once the 
smallest and richest, confer by aiding the 
poorer sects in extending the blessings of 
religion and education to the vast multi- 
tude placed by divine Providence under 
their influence and watchcare! Now it 
can hardly be doubted, that with such an 
enlargement of charity as I have supposed, 
there would come more enlarged views of 
duty and privilege, and that sectarian lines 
might cease to be insuperable barriers in 
the way of a far more exuberant and diffu- 
sive liberality than now prevails. Under 
such better auspices it would at least be 
no longer possible for opulent, enlightened 
Christian denominations to look with hos- 
tility or even indifference upon their fel- 
low-laborers in the vineyard of a common 
Master. The sympathies as well as the 
resources of the whole Christian church 
would look about in quest of its wants and 
substantial interests: while there would 
inevitably arise bonds of brotherhood, so 
many and so strong, between all the mem- 



CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN. 83 

bers of the one Christian family, as would go 
far to exclude all the petty jealousies and 
heart-burnings which wealth and position 
are sure to provoke in the church no less 
than in the world, when they forget their 
proper mission. 

One lesson more, we should imagine, 
would be ineffaceably impressed upon those 
Christian denominations which, through 
providential means or their own special 
adaptations and exertions, monopolize a 
large portion of the influential classes, 
while they have signally failed of obtain- 
ing a corresponding development among 
the great body of the people. It is a lesson 
of enlarged catholic liberality. They have, 
in their relative position, a clear demonslra- 
tion at least that others as well as they 
have a dispensation of the gospel commit- 
ted to them. That, surely, cannot be the 
only apostolic and legitimate system of 
faith or polity, which, after an experiment 
carried through successive generations of 
men, has, in this country, shown itself essen- 
tially incapable of penetrating the masses. 
They who evangelize the wealthy, the 



/ 

84 RESOURCES AND DUTIES, ETC. 

intellectual, and the refined, do unques- 
tionably perform a good work ; and there 
may be those who have a special vocation 
to this inviting field. No liberal-minded 
Christian will undervalue their efforts, or 
desire to call in question the genuineness 
of their piety, or the validity of their eccle- 
siastical system ; but it may be well for all 
parties to remember that there are signs of 
apostleship older and surer than this mission 
to the rich ; and they need not despair of 
making good their claim to a part in this 
ministry who can appeal, as their Master 
did, to eminent success among the masses, 
and affirm, like him, that through their in- 
strumentality " the blind receive their sight 
and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed 
and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up 
and the poor have the gospel preached 

UNTO THEM." 



